I too had baby brain after many sleepless nights when my son was born and left a box of diapers and wipes on to of the car, drove away and didnt know they were gone until I got home. I do remember four or five cars flashing their headlights at me, but I thought it was only for a cop and a speed trap. The wife was not happy when I got home.
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Except that would be a 3rd prize, I said seat belt, was lectured on how it can’t possibly be a seatbelt, and turns out it’s a seatbelt buckle just attached to a car seat instead of to a car.
Because it wasn’t a seatbelt, which is not long enough. But feel free to take any prize you want.
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A seat belt buckle is a seatbelt buckle. And seatbelt is long enough as per mlicb42 “I’ve actually shut a seatbelt in the door before on a Passport.”
So I’m sorry it was incorrect attachment of the belt, but same material, same buckles, same use case. Closest answer, and sure beats road debri coming through the door without damaging anything on the outside, or dog leashes being pulled through.
To be fair, shutting the buckle in the door and shutting the seat belt in the door with several feet of slack such that it could reach the rear wheel are two very different things. I don’t think you could achieve what happened here with one of the vehicle seat belts if you tried because it would never reach the wheels. A totally separate part would be required.
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That response was for Ursus who said belt is not long enough.
I don’t believe the wheel was involved at all. A buckle of any size pulled through a door by the wheel rotation would create damage on door, rear quarter, possibly the wheel itself. It wouldn’t be just a bit of internal plastic and some scratches inside. The physics just doesn’t checkout.
There’s damage all the way from the internal plastics, down past the metal on both the frame and the door and to the side skirts, with linear striations that would match something moving in that direction. It occurred rapidly, while driving, after a period of time from when the door shut. If that’s not something being pulled or pushed through the door opening, what are you suggesting it is? A buckle that was just shut in the door that wasn’t being opened at the time?
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That’s exactly what I’m suggesting. buckle crushing the plastic. The striations could be created by the door closing and pushing the buckles into position where they “fit”.
Seriously, look at the damage on the skirt and the size of either latch anchor or full buckle. Would it fit through a closed door without ripping the skirt, weather seal and door metal apart. I don’t think there is enough damage for a pulling force to be applied.
The only way I can see it happening is the buckles were in the door or close to it, the belt was hanging out as a loop, and that loop temporarily caught on something for a second or less, moving a buckle a very short distance. But that’s extremely unlikely.
I don’t have access to Passport, but since you do, if you have a piece of play doh or similar substance, make it into a piece the size both buckles that OP is describing, and place it where the pictures are. Close the door and see what happens to play doh. (Don’t slam the door or you’ll be picking up play doh splatter for a week)
Are we going to ignore that the OP confirmed the part it was, when it happened, and commented himself that the doesn’t know if it was the wheel or something else that it got caught on and yanked it out?
Or the fact that the section of damage is a good foot in length and the buckle isn’t anywhere near that size?
Or the fact that it didn’t occur while opening/closing the door?
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Are we going to ignore that he came up with that theory at 4am, while sleep deprived, and guessing?
Or that fact that he is saying that it was the buckle, which you are now saying it wasn’t. Or the fact that the 2nd buckle was “hanging out”
I know it hurts everyone in this forum when I’m right, but again, it was the seatbelt, just not the one attached to the car.
I just said it wasn’t the buckle in a static closure. To damage over a length significantly longer than the size of the buckle, it’d need to move.
This is simple. He was driving on the highway, heard “an explosion”, and then there was damage. That means something had to have happened, while driving, to cause a loud noise and damage. That, along with everything else, doesn’t line up with someone just shutting the buckle in the door and calling it a day.
It could have been anything in the car falling over. The man is clearly sleep deprived. I just looked at the car seat that I have, which is probably different than what he has, but the buckle structures are usually roughly the same. Here is the only way I see it happening that will work with all theories at once.
The big buckle gets locked in the door, the sound of crushing plastic wouldn’t be heard over the door closing. The belt with the latch buckle is hanging out and the only thing that goes through the door and the skirt is the belt itself. At some point, stars align and the latch buckle hooks onto the wheel for a split second,.which jerks the rest of the assembly enough to hear additional plastic damage (explosion).
The 2nd option that I can kind of see, is the same setup, but the car was going through a turn, and the “explosion” was just the latch buckle hanging on the outside hitting the body or poorly attached car seat leaning and pulling the big buckle from already damaged plastic. You’d have to corner pretty fast for this to happen though.
I could get on board with the buckle starting shut in the door and yanked further in rather than completely out.
Yep, @mllcb42 get’s the prize! I run a large delivery fleet. When thinking about all the crazy shit I have seen, baby seat buckles have never figured into the equation. 
Good deduction!!!